There are several important preparations that must be done
before the field work begins in any RA. The preparation time for
the study may take anywhere from a few days to several weeks,
depending on the complexity of the study and how much the
researcher already knows about the area.

Among the first questions to ask are "why is this study
being done and what is expected from it?" This will help
decide what kind of RA to do. While there are no rigid
categories, RAs are often grouped in four classes.

 An exploratory RA is done when there is not much
information about an area and a general overview of the
situation is needed. This kind of RA often helps to identify
issues that are important and warrant more detailed study.

 A topical RA looks at a particular subject and
tries to get more in-depth information. It is more focused
than an exploratory RA and often results in specific
recommendations for actions needed to solve a problem.

 An RA for monitoring and evaluation is carried out
when actions have already been undertaken. The study is done
to see whether they have been effective and to suggest
improvements in the programme or activity.

 The final class of RA leads to a process of
participatory planning. The product from this kind of not
just information or recommendation, but a detailed plan of
action that is devised with the population at the site where
the study takes place.

Information about tenure and natural resource management may
be gathered in any of these studies, so it is important to
consider carefully what the actual information needs are. Are
they limited to a rather superficial look at tenure issues as
part of a broader study on how people ensure their livelihoods?
In this case, the RA will be broad and exploratory. Is there a
need to gather lots of information on tenure questions, looking
at broader issues only superficially to get a context for the
study? In this case, the RA will be topical. The kinds of
questions asked and the amount of time spent on different issues
will be quite different depending on the type of information
required. It is important that the members of the team and the
organization for which the study is being carried out all agree
on what needs to be learned before field work is begun. This will
help to minimize disputes in the field and criticisms when
results are presented upon return to the office.

Once a decision has been taken regarding the kind of study
required, the specific objectives of the work must be considered.
The objectives define what information is desired and will be
used to guide activities in the field. If objectives are clearly
defined, they help orient the research and make it more likely
that useful results will be obtained in the end. It may help to
think of research as a kind of puzzle. Each time a piece of
information is collected, another piece of the puzzle is
obtained. The objectives are like the frame or the border of the
puzzle. It is necessary to collect information that will fit
inside the borders which have been established by the objectives.

There are two dangers in setting objectives that can be
illustrated by the puzzle example. The first danger is setting
objectives that are too broad for the time available to do the
study. In this case the frame is a large one. Even if a lot of
information is collected, it is likely to be scattered, with one
piece here and another there. At the end of the study, there will
be so many blank areas remaining that it will be hard to make any
sense of the picture and to see the significance of the
information collected. At the other extreme is the danger of
setting objectives that are too narrow. In this case the frame is
very small and it is easy to get enough information to fill in
the whole frame. The picture may be too small to make much sense,
though, and the most interesting information may fall outside the
frame around the study. (Example: the study covers everything
there is to know about tree tenure, but the more locally relevant
and conflictual subject is how pastures are managed.)

Setting good objectives is often one of the most difficult
parts of an RA. In an RRA, the whole team should participate and
sometimes other members of the organization doing the study
should be invited to assist in order to ensure that everyone is
in agreement. Plenty of time must be allowed for discussion
because this is where the team members' different perspectives
need to be represented. For a PRA, the local community should be
actively involved in setting the objectives for the field study.
In this case, objective setting may be the first step in the
field work.

In setting objectives, a common ground must be found so that
the team will work comfortably together in the field. It is
dangerous to set objectives that are either too broad or too
narrow; a middle course should be found that meets information
needs and is compatible with the time available for the study.
Typically, it is useful to define a theme for the study and three
or four principal objectives. Several sub-objectives can be noted
to help guide the study but very specific questions should be
avoided, since they more appropriately belong on the daily
checklist of issues to be examined in detail (see Chapter 3).

The textbox on the next page gives an example of objectives
for an RA that falls somewhere between an exploratory and a
topical study. These objectives are presented as an illustration
only: the objectives of any specific exercise may end up looking
quite different from the ones suggested here. When doing a PRA in
order to devise a community resource plan, it is a good idea to
focus on identifying problems in resource use or management. Once
the community has identified its resources, problems, and
constraints, its last objective might then be to "devise a
plan (based on the information gathered) for improving the use of
community resources, clearly identifying the roles and
responsibilities of all parties involved."

There is no set pattern for carrying out an RA. Every field
study is a little bit different because the questions to be
answered and the conditions encountered vary. A "basic"
RA as well as two of the many possible variations are discussed
below.

The first example might be called the "basic" RA.
This is the case where the team does a single field study in a
single village. Typically, the team has three to six members and
the field study might last from four days to a week. While this
is the simplest kind of RA, it is probably not the most effective
since there is no follow-up. These kinds of participatory
techniques lend themselves to building longer-term relations with
the local communities in question.

Sample Objectives for a Tenure
Study

RESEARCH THEME:
An exploratory/topical RA on tenure and natural resource
management in the village of X.

OBJECTIVE 1:

Identify the territory (ies) of the
village of X and, by micro-ecological zone/tenure niche,
the principal natural resources found there.

OBJECTIVE 2:

Identify the users of natural resources
and their utilization with particular attention to the
following social categories:

One variation is to do a series of RAs in one village over
time. Research might be carried out with the village on three or
more different occasions. This might be done to get information
at different times of year, or at different points in the project
cycle. The same village might host exploratory, topical and
monitoring RAs, for example. The objectives for each RA would be
different, depending on what kind of information was needed at
the time of each study.

A PRA that tries to draw up a resource plan might be done
either during one discrete time period (perhaps taking two weeks
or more) or might be done sequentially over several weeks or
months. If outsiders are involved, they may make several sojourns
in the village. The first sojourn could serve to participate in
planning the study and setting objectives for the work, a second
to participate in the community's activities to collect
information and a third to come up with a plan in light of the
problems and potentialities identified. Then, over a period of
several years, follow-up studies might take place to evaluate
actions that have been undertaken and to plan new activities.

In a second variation, the objectives of the study stay the
same but RAs are carried out on different sites. Perhaps several
villages in different areas of the country or different
micro-ecological zones might be selected in order to get a sense
of the diversity or similarity of conditions. If outsiders are
conducting the research, the same team might conduct all the
studies or the team might split into sub-groups to explore the
situation in different areas.

The decision of how many sites to include in the RA will
depend on (a) the purpose of the study, (b) the size and nature
(relatively more heterogeneous or more homogeneous) of the
territory to be covered, and (c) the means available. If the
purpose of the RA is to gather information to inform a project or
policy decisions, information will probably need to be gathered
from several sites. The more variation in the area being studied,
the more sites will probably need to be selected in order to
understand the range of situations. However, if the purpose of
the study is to gather information that can be used locally to
create an action plan, then each study is independent of any
others and the number of villages is not a concern.

The next step in site selection is to think about the criteria
to be used in choosing the sites. Here it is important to decide
whether what is required is a site or sites that can be
considered representative, or, on the other hand, a site or sites
with some special characteristics. For example, if the purpose of
the study is to inform the activities of a project that is
working in a certain area, it may be useful to sample one or
several villages that are fairly representative in terms of
resource management. In this case villages that are very
different from the average would be avoided (for example because
they are particularly large or are comprised of an uncommon
ethnic group).

If there are some important differences in the area, it might
be necessary to make a stratified sample. This means that the
major factors that might cause villages to manage their resources
differently are identified in advance. For example, such factors
might include ethnic group or proximity to markets. Thus, one
village is chosen to represent the situation of one ethnic group
and one that of another ethnic group. Or one to represent
villages with good marketing opportunities and another to
represent villages without. As much as possible, the villages
selected must be representative of their class.

In other cases, it may be important to do the study in a
village that is special in some way. For example, certain
villages may have devised particular mechanisms for managing
their communal lands and it would be useful to know more about
them. In this case, a village is selected for study because it is
different.

It will depend on the situation whether it makes sense to
choose villages that are representative or those that are
particular in some way. What is important in either case is that
(1) careful thought go into deciding why a certain choice is made
and (2) the criteria for selection are made explicit. Once the
criteria have been established, help can be solicited from people
who know the area well (development workers who have spent a long
time in the zone, extension agents, government officials, etc.)
to help in selecting the village(s0 that will meet the criteria
decided upon.

RRA teams that bring outsiders into a village are usually
composed of three to six people. Where villagers join the team as
active members, a somewhat larger team may be necessary to permit
greater participation. For the purpose of
"triangulating" and reducing the bias that comes from a
single perspective, it is preferable to have no fewer than three
people. The principal reason for limiting the number of people on
the team is that large teams can at times be difficult to manage.

In selecting the team, it is important to ensure a diversity
of perspectives and experience. There should be both men and
women on the team. At a minimum, it is useful to have at least
one social scientist as well as people with technical expertise
relevant to the subject being studied. For tenure studies, useful
social science fields include economics, sociology, anthropology
and geography. Among the technical fields that are particularly
useful are agronomy, forestry and animal husbandry and
pastoralism. In cases where villagers join the team, it is
equally important to include a variety of perspectives. The
importance of having diverse representation should be discussed
when the methodology is initially introduced to the village so
that their selection of people to join the team reflects the
diversity of the community as much as possible.

Since the team will have to work intensively together, it is
important that the members are personally compatible and that all
are committed to the same objectives. It is also important that
outsiders be willing to work in a participatory fashion and in a
genuinely collaborative effort with the local population. It is
vital to screen out people whose arrogance or inability to value
local participation and perspectives would make their presence
counterproductive. If possible, it is advantageous to get someone
with experience in RA to serve as team leader.

An important step in the preparation for the field study is to
gather and review relevant secondary materials. This will help
the team to fix its objectives and also to focus its questions.
Secondary material relevant to a tenure study can come from many
sources. If team members are unfamiliar with the area, it will be
necessary to spend some time looking at whatever general
information is available on the social structure and livelihood
or farming systems found in the area where the research will take
place. This kind of information can be found in studies that have
been done for other projects, from academic research and from
government reports. It is useful to get copies of any national
laws or local edicts that relate to resource management. If there
have been local court cases concerning tenure and resource
conflicts, these may also prove interesting. Maps of the area as
well as any aerial photographs should be obtained where
available.

One cannot assume, of course, that all secondary information
is necessarily good information. It should always be read with a
critical eye. As the team reviews the literature, it is useful to
keep a list of areas where all the reports seem to agree about
resource management practices. Other areas where there seem to be
differences of opinion should also be identified. On a third
sheet, questions that arise while going through the reports can
be noted. Are there important areas that have little information
written about them? Noting all of these will help prepare the
questions to ask and identify the issues to probe more deeply
when in the field.

The last area to be discussed in preparing a field study is
logistics. This topic will not be considered in great depth here,
though it is of considerable importance to the success of the
study. If a preliminary site selection is done by outsiders, an
initial visit to the village is needed to explain the purpose and
methodology of the research and to find out whether the village
is interested in participating. If the village agrees to host the
study, discussion can then begin concerning such logistical
arrangements as the lodging and feeding of the team. As a rule of
thumb, outsiders should try to integrate as fully as possible
into the life of the village but without imposing an undue burden
on their hosts. This might mean asking someone to prepare local
foods for the team but contributing foodstuffs sufficient to
amply cover the needs of the team and people who may join it for
its meals. Experience suggests that teams should stay overnight
in the village where the study takes place whenever possible.
This both helps to create an ambiance conducive to participatory
research and facilitates an effective use of time in the field.
In some places, local authorities expect to be informed of the
programme when outsiders conduct studies or activities in the
area under their authority.